Monthly Archives: September 2017

Updated: September 28th 2017

Week 3 Results

1. Wendell – 9-7

T2.English – 8-8

T2.Papson– 8-8

Overall Standings

1. English – 31-16

2.Wendell – 30-17

3.Papson– 28-19

Well, that was an extremely weird week of games, which was probably to be expected with so many home underdogs. Huge surprises with the Jaguars destroying the Ravens in London, Buffalo defending home turf against the Broncos, the Bears upsetting the Steelers in OT, and the Redskins getting the best of the Raiders on both sides of the ball. Winning on the road in the NFL is just hard…period. It was an up and down week for us as well, as Wendell goes 9-7, one game better than both Papson and English at 8-8. English leads the yearly standings by one game over Wendell and three over Papson, so one week could change everything. Here are our picks for the week:

NFL Game Picks

Game

Wendell

English

Papson

CHI @ GB

NO @ MIA

BUF @ ATL

CIN @ CLV

LAR @ DAL

DET @ MIN

CAR @ NE

JAX @ NYJ

PIT @ BAL

TEN @ HOU

SF @ ARI

PHI @ LAC

NYG @ TB

OAK @ DEN

IND @ SEA

WAS @ KC

Everyone enjoy the games in Week 4 and best of luck this week in your leagues!

Connect with RSO

Updated: September 27th 2017

With a ground-breaking extension feature getting rolled out next week (for more details from the league office, take a look here) Reality Sports Online GMs have been scurrying around for inside information like the Duke brothers seeking out the Frozen Concentrated O.J. insider crop harvest report in Trading Places. While this article may not have much about the “secret sauce” that factors into what offer your expiring players are receiving from Weeks 5 to 13 this season, treat this as a comprehensive strategic approach to making contract extension decisions.

These are my opinions and advice based on the information I have about extensions. Just like you, I’m not swimming in insider information. I have, however, put a lot of thought into devising the methodology to approach this decision with. Feel free to use these thoughts, critique them, ignore them and question them on Twitter . Either way, remember that the RSO guys have created something innovative based on the Moneyball mindset that may require a few kinks to be worked out early on. So if you encounter any type of issues, please be kind and patient (and refrain from social media negging) because this platform is infinitely better than what you were playing before and I’m saying that as a customer.

As a disclaimer, I’m not certain I’ll be using my one league voted in-season extension this season as I tend to be a free-market guy who would prefer to see what is going on in the auction. Being somewhat conservative, I haven’t yet been saddled with many “bad contracts” in my leagues that I haven’t been able to get out of, and ultimately that’s the biggest risk an owner faces with these extensions. The biggest risk the RSO guys face with extensions is actually the polar opposite-having the algorithm spit out too kind of a deal for extensions. Remember that when you see your initial offers.

The Airline Ticket Purchase Analogy– When you are looking at taking a trip and booking flights, you don’t keep searching prices after you’ve already purchased the ticket. Likewise, you don’t get on the plane and ask the person sitting next to you how much they paid for their ticket.

So, in similar fashion, if you have extensions enabled in your league and you like the price/years offered for an expiring player the first week it is offered (note that only your team can see the offers your player is getting on your team page) and have the requisite cap space in future years to do it, pull the trigger and don’t look back.

Also, with the “everything is an asset” in an RSO league caveat-if you as an owner are transparent about what your player offers are to other owners, you may be able to work out a favorable trade with them.

What’s Your Benchmark?- Since the only other viable extension opportunity for you is the franchise tag, that is a number you are now forced to know like the back of your hand for every position you have on your roster. If you haven’t calculated the Top 5 positional average for players in your league under contract for 2018 yet, you are already behind. If you are behind, don’t worry, it is not hard to calculate that average by position.

Remember, that the franchise tag for your player by position is the HIGHER of the Top 5 positional average or 120% of your current year salary for that player. The franchise tag does have a term limit of being used twice and obviously has a multiplier effect of 120% if you’ve used it once already.

That said, you should always be comparing your annual average value of your extension offer to your franchise tag cost for the upcoming year. If the extension offer is cheaper for the player of need, that may be an indication that you want to extend that player.

I’ll predict that with potentially high extension price tags and future increases to auction prices (see #3) that the franchise tag will be a more strategically used asset across leagues in the future.

Predicting Future Auction Prices- I’m saying this for those who have been on the RSO platform for a short period of time where the talent in free agency hasn’t turned over much in leagues due to rookie contracts not expiring, etc. Just like you have certain expectations of what someone should cost prior to the auction via your prep, the real auction takes twists and turns and gets more unpredictable as players like Antonio Brown and Rob Gronkowski become free agents for the first time in your leagues. Add that into a dynamic market where several teams are coming into the auction with significant ($100m +) cap space and you get scenarios like my main league where Brown went on a huge contract for 4 years, $243.5m.

Then, when a few players trickle back into the auction and teams have bountiful cap space, you see overpayments being made for players who don’t deserve as much as they are getting. That’s where your perception of where future auction prices are headed can benefit you in looking at extending players. I’ll talk about this more in a bit, but it really is about getting over the initial “sticker shock” of the extension offers.

Sticker Shock and What To Do With It- When you’ve paid a rookie that you sneakily drafted early in Round 2 of your 2014 rookie draft like I did with Devonta Freeman around $1.5m a year for four years, any contract extension offer is going to seem astronomical. Don’t let it be. Of course, Freeman’s rookie contract is well under market value and his extension offer may be more than what you perceive market value to be. Likely, it will fall somewhere in between.

So you’ll likely need to “check down” against what someone like Freeman’s franchise tag # would be in 2018 (of course that’s the summer vs. an in season extension). This is exactly what I’m going to do in Week 5 when the initial offers come out.

Here is an inside look at a spreadsheet I use in my main league to look into future use of franchise tags and extensions. If you don’t have a template like this, you don’t have to be an Excel whiz to set one up. Note that my calculation for Freeman’s tag is based on the Top 5 positional average for running backs. I’ll try to explain more about Allen Robinson later as I’ve already been approached by one owner who is trying to figure out what to do with him this season (NOTE: I have not seen any offers for Robinson and just put these salaries in as a placeholder that may not be realistic).

Players with Small Sample Size (Rookies and Breakouts)

For current rookies or players without much history on their side that have performed well thus far this season, the algorithm has a very small sample size and the offers are likely to be outside of your comfort zone. If you think that someone like Tarik Cohen has league star written all over him, feel free to accept the offer coming his way. I personally would lean on a larger sample size and take my chances in an auction, but one thing you have that the others in your league don’t is current control over that player.

Age Matters

From what I gather, age of player is a definite component of the algorithm that determines extension values and contract lengths being offered. If you’ve seen players like Brandon Marshall fail to separate from DB’s lately, you’ll know that you don’t want to give too many years or dollars to someone on the backside of their career.

At the same time, consider some pivotal ages for your wide receivers and running backs. I typically would view 33 year-old receivers as one year guys with few exceptions (this is when a player like Andre Johnson experienced his decline). In terms of running backs, I’m not giving any running back over the age of 27 more than two years. If you’ve noticed the running back leaders this season in fantasy points, you’ll see that rookie running backs and guys like Todd Gurley and Freeman sit atop the board and they are all 25 and under.

I know there are exceptions to every rule/player, but remember you are in essence via the extension bidding against yourself here and not the market.

I’m All About Value

With likely high prices across the board for extension players, to hit a home run on one, you’re likely to be taking on significant risk or finding value in the marketplace. With that, I think creativity is important and that would include taking a look at players who were already injured this season and are out for the season. Guys like Cam Meredith and the aforementioned Robinson. Let’s dig deeper on Robinson since I’m facing this very decision.

The good: he doesn’t turn 25 until next August, has a monster season under his belt that was two years ago (80-1,400-14), already had surgery a day after his ACL injury with no other structural damage and is a potential real-life NFL free agent this offseason. He also has no other NFL injury history. His 2017 stats were 1 catch for 17 yards before his unfortunate injury.

The negatives other than the fact that he was injured include his quarterback Blake Bortles not being able to optimize his talents, his 2016 stats being a down year (73-883-6), his Jacksonville Jaguars head coach being uber-focused on the running game, and this injury.

However, from an extension standpoint, there may be an opportunity to arbitrage here as most of Robinson’s negatives can be viewed as positives from an extension standpoint.

Taking into account that Robinson hasn’t produced at an elite level in two years would seem to mean that you could be getting him at an extension number that shows there’s future uncertainty in his outcomes. Yet, Robinson figures to be back playing for the start of the 2018 season and potentially on a new team (or with a new QB other than Bortles). He could be on a “one year prove it deal” with Jacksonville or elsewhere and based on his size, speed and skills, should be able to get back to being a top 20 wide receiver.

So taking into account the likely lack of fluctuation in his weekly offers due to his 2017 being over, his subpar 2016, and some future uncertainty, you may be able to get Robinson for way less than if he was coming off of an all-pro season. Additionally, since you can extend players who occupy your injured reserve space, you can get the benefit of not having to occupy a valuable 2017 roster spot with Robinson.

Not sure what the offers will be for Robinson, but I think anything over $20m a year starts to get me out of my comfort zone based on the fact that much of his uncertainty won’t clear up until the offseason and you have to decide by Week 13 what you are doing with him.

Other than injured players, you may want to look a mid-tier tight ends for potential extension value as well as the position is typically viewed as having less skill.

OK, folks, hopefully this methodology guide on how to approach extension decisions will be helpful to you this season and down the line. Remember, you don’t have to use the extension, so make the decision that best works for your team’s current and future success.

Matt Goodwin is in his fourth season as senior writer for Reality Sports Online and is in year five of his main league. He also contributed for numberFire for several years. He is an avid sports fan from Cleveland, Ohio who would count a Cleveland Indians World Series victory a close second behind getting married to his wife Renee and the births of his children, Jory (7 year old son) and Lainie (3 year old daughter). Matt loves mid 90’s hip-hop, playing pick-up hoops, traveling, Ohio State football and Arizona basketball, watching Glengarry Glen Ross for the millionth time and being outside the few months it doesn’t rain in Seattle where he lives. He can be found on Twitter @mattgoody2 and hopes you continue to read his In the Zone articles and take his side when he’s debating player value with @RobertFCowper.

Updated: September 27th 2017

Welcome to The Watch List, a resource to help RSO owners identify the storylines, players and matchups from the college game that deserve your attention. To view my weekly picks, follow me on Twitter @robertfcowper. Check back throughout the season as The Watch List will continue to update you on who is fantasy relevant and worth your draft capital next year.

Storylines to Watch

Heisman Update: I am starting to regret my plan to include a Heisman update in every weekly Watch List article. The weekly movement so far has been greater than I expected but I do anticipate that we will have some more clarity in two or three weeks after teams get deeper into their conference schedule. After his dominating performance against Iowa’s 26th ranked rush defense, Saquon Barkley leap frogs Mason Rudolph to my top spot. Barkley had 305 yards from scrimmage and a rushing touchdown and was key to the Nittany Lions’ comeback victory. Barkley just might be better than advertised. Four QBs, in no particular order at the moment, round out my top five: Rudolph, Darnold, Rosen and Jackson. Combined, those four threw just 9 TDs this weekend and a whopping 7 INTs. They did throw for a lot of yards (1,400) but it was just a good reminder that none of them is perfect.

Georgia’s QB Controversy: Head coach Kirby Smart has found himself living the old adage that “if you have two quarterbacks, you have zero.” True freshman Jake Fromm took over for sophomore Jacob Eason after Eason was hurt to start the season. Fromm has lead the team capably since then and has improved on Eason’s numbers from last year. Eason was just over 55% completion percentage in 2016 while Fromm is over 62% this season. As far as TD:INT ratio goes, Eason was 16:8 while Fromm is 7:1. Smart has to stick with the hot hand for now but would be smart to find Eason some time in lopsided games, you never know when Eason will have to return to the starting role. One last note, can everybody please stop with the “Jake Fromm State Farm” joke on Twitter? Thank you.

Injuries to RB Prospects: I have not done 2018 positional rankings yet but both Derrius Guice and Ronald Jones would be in or near my Top 5 as of today. The problem is that both are struggling with injuries which have left the door open for their understudy to steal some share of the carries. Jones, unexpectedly at least to me, did not travel to Cal and missed the game. That let true freshman Stephen Carr load up with 26 touches and he succeeded with 129 total yards and a touchdown. Guice did play against Auburn, in fact he had a one yard touchdown run on the Tigers first play that was set up by an interception, but was limited to just 8 carries and 14 yards. Similar to Carr, Darrel Williams had 142 total yards and a score. Even if Guice and Jones retain the biggest piece of the pie, I think there is no question that their teams will not rush them back.

Players to Watch

Jaylen Samuels, TE, NC State: I’ll start off by saying that I have no idea what Samuels’ pro prospects are but it doesn’t matter, he’s quickly become one of my favorite college players. Samuels is listed as a TE but he really isn’t. At 5’11” and 228lb, he would be the first TE at the combine since 2000 to be shorter than 6’1″ (Pro-football-reference.com only goes back to 2000, I would bet that record would go back further). What Samuels lacks in stature, he makes up for with “want to.” Whatever you need him to do on the field, he wants to. I have never seen such interesting game logs than his. He has 164 career carries, 117 receptions and 2 passing completions. He has 18 rushing TDs, 20 receiving TDs and 1 passing TD. Against Florida State this past weekend, he had 17 touches for 75 yards and 2 TDs. In the NFL he’ll project more as an h-back (same size as Matt Asiata) but could be the ultimate 3rd down weapon if he lands on the right team.

David Montgomery, RB, Iowa State: By all accounts David Montgomery is a good kid with a good story which makes his success so far for the Cyclones refreshing. Montgomery finished his freshman season off strong with 341 yards over the last three games and has continued that success into 2017. His trend line, yards wise, is heading in the right direction this year with 82, 113 and 127 yards against Northern Iowa, Iowa and Akron respectively. He’s also getting involved in the passing game with five catches each of the last two. Montgomery is just a sophomore but I’m rooting for him to keep up the success and look forward to doing more in depth research next season.

Travis Etienne, RB, Clemson: Etienne is a true freshman who has found a role as the hammer to close out Clemson’s wins. He had a late 4th quarter touchdown against both Louisville and Boston College. His yardage totals are impressive 81-98-113 but are mostly composed of yards gained on his three 50+ yard runs. There is something strange looking about Etienne’s gait, I think it’s because he is such a long strider, but he is undeniably fast and explosive. If he sees any daylight, he is gone. In high school, he ran a hand-timed 4.24 40-yard dash. I question the accuracy but given three years of college experience, I have no doubt that Etienne can end up in that range at the 2020 NFL combine. Playing devil’s advocate to my own thoughts, I should point out that I am evaluating Etienne on the smallest of sample sizes: has just 23 carries through three games and zero receptions. I’m hoping that he proves durable enough to earn 10-12 touches per game the rest of the way.

Bradley Chubb, DE, NC State: Chubb will be one of the top ranked DE prospects in 2018 and is likely a first round talent. I’ll bet most casual fans have never heard of him but if you watched the game against Florida State you might have noticed him. Chubb had 7 tackles and 2 sacks. Chubb also had a forced fumble but was not credited with one, maybe because of the crazy melee that followed trying to recover the fumble.

Games to Watch

#5 USC @ #16 Washington State, 10:30pm Friday on ESPN: Pac-12 after dark is usually a great way to end your Saturdays but this week we get a great Friday night matchup to start off the weekend. As returning readers know, I am down on QB Sam Darnold but up on RBs Ronald Jones and Stephen Carr. Neither defense is great so we’ll see a lot of points. I am interested in seeing Washington State QB Luke Falk against a defense with some NFL prospects, especially CB Iman Marshall.

Northwestern @ #10 Wisconsin, 12:00pm Saturday on ABC: Northwestern’s senior RB Justin Jackson is on my watch list but I haven’t done enough research yet to feature him. He had a great game against Bowling Green last game (121 yards, 3 TDs) but struggled against Duke the week before (just 18 yards). Seeing him face Wisconsin’s 9th ranked rush defense will be telling. Wisconsin’s QB, Alex Hornibrook, has been steady and takes care of the ball (70% completion percentage and just 1 INT). The surprise for the Badgers though has been true freshman RB Jonathan Taylor. Taylor is just a 3 star recruit from NJ but is averaging an impressive 8.3 yards per carry. He lit up FAU for 223 yards and 3 TDs and followed that up with 128-1 against BYU. The matchup has 13-9 written all over it but I’ll still be tuning in.

#2 Clemson @ #12 Virginia Tech, 8:00pm Saturday on ABC: Beating Clemson would be a career defining win for Hokie coach Justin Fuente. Fuente’s stock is already rising after a 10-4 season last year and a strong start to 2017. There aren’t too many jobs bigger than Virginia Tech but he’ll be a candidate for some of them if he keeps it up. Tech WR Cam Phillips has 34 receptions (4th most in the NCAA) which is nearly half of QB Josh Jackson’s completions. Keep your eye on Clemson’s star in the making, freshman RB Travis Etienne.

Northern Illinois @ #19 San Diego State, 10:30 Saturday on CBSSN: Northern Illinois has a good non-conference win already under their belt against Nebraska and they will be looking to add another scalp in #19 San Diego State. I think the 19th ranking is a little disrespectful, they should be ahead of South Florida. Rashaad Penny, after his fantastic start, will find himself in the 5-7 range of my 2018 RBs when I start working on positional rankings. Penny is second in the NCAA in rushing yards (716) and second in yards from scrimmage (803). SDSU’s defense is good enough to make me feel confident in picking the Aztecs to keep their run alive.

Note: When watching film for a player in the offseason, I typically pick two games at random to watch. If game film is not available I will search for highlight reels, but keep in mind these are the best plays that player had all season so they really need to jump off the screen. I do not necessarily want to watch games where they did very well or very poorly as that may not be a great illustration of their true ability. If possible, when comparing players at the same position I also like to watch film against common opponents. Full disclosure, I am not watching film of every single game any player plays, instead I am looking for a representative sample. When researching college players I use a number of resources, I would recommend bookmarking the below sites…

Stats: espn.com, sports-reference.com, cfbstats.com

Film: draftbreakdown.com, youtube.com (but be wary of highlight only reels)

Robert F. Cowper is a freelance writer who lives in New Jersey. Robert works as a recreation professional, specializing in youth sports, when he isn’t acting as commissioner for his many fantasy sports leagues.

Updated: September 27th 2017

Each week we will recommend a group of players that are owned in less than 50% of RSO league that should be rostered. Depending on roster and league sizes not all of these players may be available. For that, we will offer 1 player that is owned in <10% of leagues as our Sleeper add.

Add of the Week

Austin Seferian-Jenkins, TE – NYJ (Owned 39%)

Week 3: 5 Rec/31 yards

Seferian-Jenkins (ASJ) joined his new team after serving his two-game suspension and looked like he hadn’t missed a beat. While 30 yards isn’t a lot this offers the perfect opportunity to still get him off the waivers without breaking the bank. The game was well in hand for most of the afternoon so the Jets ran the ball 30 times, limiting the passing game. But ASJ did tie Robby Anderson for the most targets (6) and brought in 5 catches. The Jets figure to be playing from behind more than they were this week which means that there is a definite upside to ASJ’s target volume. Along with this, Matt Forte injured his toe and left early in the game. If he misses any amount of time this only means more dump-off targets will be available. The Jets haven’t had a fantasy relevant TE since the days of Dustin Keller but if ASJ is truly over his personal demons this could be a great turnaround season for him.

Suggested Bid: $500,000 – $1,500,000

RB Add

Orleans Darkwa, RB – NYG (Owned 18%)

Week 3: 7 Car/22 yards, 1 Rec/11 yards

The Giants looked absolutely terrible on offense for the first two games and two-quarters of the season but then they scored three 4th quarter touchdowns and quieted at least some of their detractors. The overall state of the Giants run game is brutal, 48.7 yards/game and isn’t one to get excited about. I still prefer Shane Vereen (who I listed as a waiver add two weeks ago) since he has the greatest upside as the primary receiving back but it appears that Ben McAdoo is still trying to find a traditional way to use the running game in his offense. McAdoo does appear, however, to be losing faith in Paul Perkins since he only had 2 more carries than Darkwa. It’s not an unrealistic expectation for him to try and create a spark in the offense by switching up his lead back. Darkwa isn’t someone that you would add to start but with bye weeks coming soon and injuries to RBs piling up he might be a usable option in weeks to come.

Suggested Bid: $500,000

WR Add

Ryan Grant, WR – WAS (Owned 4%)

Week 3: 3 Rec/75 yards

I wanted to add Grant to this column last week but needed to see more from him and his 1 catch performance in week 2. Finally getting a chance to watch a full game on Sunday Night showed me that he is definitely involved in Kirk Cousin’s target list and is an add in every league right now. The best part of the week 3 game was that Josh Doctson had a highlight reel catch that will make everyone think that he is ready to be a big part of the offense. In reality, Doctson had only that one catch on two targets in the game. Cousins might be looking to Chris Thompson in the dump pass more often but I also expect opposing teams to scheme for this moving forward. Hopefully, this opens up more play action screens giving Grant and other receivers separation downfield.

Suggested Bid: $500,000

Bruce Ellington, WR – HOU (Owned 4%)

Week 3: 4 Rec/59 yards, 1 TD

Bruce Ellington was a player that I rostered throughout the preseason due to a number of receiver injuries that the Texans had. Unfortunately, he didn’t make the final cut for most of my fantasy teams and wasn’t used by the Texans for the first two weeks of the season. He showed up in week 3 however and looked like the second option behind DeAndre Hopkins playing on 70 of 71 offensive snap. He also caught his first touchdown of the season. There was plenty of optimism surrounding Ellington’s potential while in San Francisco so maybe it will be with this change of scenery that he will start to see fantasy value again. There has been recent news that Will Fuller could play in week 4 but between his one-dimensional usage as a speed receiver and frequent drops, the staff may want to see what Ellington can do first.

Suggested Bid: $500,000 – $1,000,000

TE Adds

Vernon Davis, TE – WAS (Owned 15%)

Week 3: 5 Rec/58 yards, 1 TD

Surprise, surprise Jordan Reed is injured and missed another game. If it walks like an injured duck and squawks like an injured duck then it’s probably an injury-prone duck. As I mentioned in the Grant piece above, Kirk Cousin’s is likely going to be throwing a high number of passes this season and likes to use his TE in the passing game each week. Vernon Davis may not be the player he was San Francisco years ago but there’s a reason Washington values him enough to have behind Jordan Reed. He’s a player who knows how to play fundamental football and gets open with his route running and quickness. Reed will likely be out for other games throughout the season so Davis will have his days. Tight End production can be hard to predict outside of a handful of players but if Reed is out Davis should be started in all leagues.

Suggested Bid: $1,000,000 – $1,500,000

Sleeper Add (<10%)

Corey Clement, RB – PHI (Owned 5%)

Week 3: 6 Car/22 yards, 1 TD

Another preseason player that both fellow RSO writer Bob Cowper (@RobertFCowper) and I liked this preseason was undrafted rookie running back, Corey Clement. I spoke about his potential in this offense in my preseason watch list article here. After Darren Sproles was injured last week he finally got see some action and he showed flashes of his ability with limited reps, scoring a late touchdown. Remember, during the preseason there were rumors about LeGarrette Blount not fitting well with the Eagles run scheme and Wendell Smallwood looked sluggish. Both were considered plausible cut candidates. Now that Sproles is done for the season (ACL tear and broken arm) Clement may have his shot to prove that he can be a part of this offense. It may not be immediate but I would expect Doug Pederson to play the guy that gives him the best chance to win the game; which I think could be Corey Clement.

Updated: September 22nd 2017

Week 2 Results

1. English – 13-3

T2.Wendell – 11-5

T2.Papson– 11-5

Overall Standings

1. English – 23-8

2.Wendell – 21-10

3.Papson– 20-11

Not a bad week for all three of us but English nailed the Falcons over the Packers as well as the Lions over the Giants to go 13-3 for the week, which puts him two games ahead of Wendell and three ahead of Papson. We got a NFC West battle (pillow fight?) on TNF tonight where Jared Goff will look to potentially shine to a national audience against a SF defense that played pretty well on the road last week in Seattle. The first London game is this week as well with the Jaguars playing host to a surprising Ravens team which has looked great through the first two weeks of the year. Tons of home underdogs this week so should have some interesting results and could be a big week for one of us to take a big lead in the standings. Here are our picks for Week 3:

NFL Game Picks

Game

Wendell

English

Papson

LAR @ SF

NYG @ PHI

BAL @ JAX

DEN @ BUF

PIT @ CHI

ATL @ DET

CLV @ IND

TB @ MIN

HOU @ NE

MIA @ NYJ

NO @ CAR

SEA @ TEN

CIN @ GB

KC @ LAC

OAK @ WAS

DAL @ ARI

Everyone enjoy the games in Week 3 and best of luck this week in your leagues!

Connect with RSO

Updated: September 21st 2017

Struggles of the New York Giants offense during the first two weeks of the NFL season led many to question whether Eli Manning’s play diminished to the point that his career is nearing the end. The question becomes is this season that much different for Manning? Are there other factors in the play here which contribute to the Giants’ poor play so far? I take a deeper look into the question comparing this season with the rest of Eli’s career.

Eli’s Career

Eli Manning accumulated many accolades over the course of his 14 seasons. Eli amassed 48,677 yards (8th all-time) and 321 touchdowns (7th all-time) so far in his career. Manning’s yardage and touchdown numbers are greater than that of many quarterbacks in the Hall of Fame. Those numbers are due, in part, to his remarkable run of availability. Manning has been a model of good health over his career never missing a game to injury playing every game for the New York Giants. The Giants have managed 6 playoff appearances during Manning’s time as quarterback and he owns an 8-4 playoff record during that time. The New York quarterback also won two Super Bowl trophies over the years including two Super Bowl MVPs, beating Tom Brady and the New England Patriots for each win.

Not all has been great in the Manning realm throughout his career though. Eli has been one of the most consistently inconsistent quarterbacks in the league. He has the skills to produce great seasons like the Super Bowl winning 2011 year in which Manning threw for nearly 5,000 yards while at the same time fully capable of completely imploding as in the 2013 season in which he led the league with an astounding 27 interceptions. Manning tossed 217 interceptions so far, second among active quarterbacks. His inconsistency can appear even in the same game. Manning may look like a Hall of Famer one minute making solid pinpoint accurate throws for chunks of a game. The next minute might easily see Manning throwing horribly inaccurate throws and making awful decisions usually reserved for rookies. And what about that stellar playoff record? Outside of those two Super Bowl seasons, Manning produced exactly zero wins in four playoff appearances producing an abysmal 54% completion percentage, a miniscule 6.3 yards per attempt, and an ugly 3:7 touchdown to interception ratio during those games.

Eli Compared to Other Quarterbacks

I next take a look at how Manning has performed in relation to other NFL quarterbacks. The chart below shows Manning’s yearly ranking for a variety of quarterback metrics including ESPN’s QBR, passer rating, and Football Outsider’s quarterback DVOA. Manning’s average of each metric is displayed at the bottom of the chart not including 2017. The results are decidedly mediocre. Manning manages zero top-5 and few top-10 finishes by any measure throughout his entire career. His best score is a middle of the pack average of 15th over his career. Eli’s recent history is even worse. From 2013-2016, Manning best average among the listed metrics is only 21st. Put succinctly, Eli was never among the better quarterbacks in the league and his play in recent years qualifies only as average, at best, for starting quarterbacks in the NFL. His play this season does appear completely not out of the norm when compared to his latest years.

So what types of players are the best comparables to Manning? Jay Cutler and Joe Flacco provide the closest comps to Manning with very similar yards per attempt, completion percentage, and touchdown to interception ratios found below. This may seem surprising at first but really should not be when one thinks about the players, particularly Cutler. Manning and Cutler share many of the same strengths including good arm strength but also many of the same weaknesses including the afore-mentioned poor decision making and inconsistent accuracy. Pro-Football-Reference’s Adjusted Yards per Attempt and Net Yards per Attempt are also included below for additional comparison purposes.

Eli’s Surrounding Circumstances in New York

Numbers sometimes hide the true value of a player working in a sub-optimal situation so we need to look at Manning’s surround cast during his time with the Giants to determine if he was handicapped by his fellow teammates. Below we find Football Outsider’s efficiency rankings on total defense, offensive line pass protection (adjusted sack rate), and offensive rushing for New York during the Manning years with the average rank from 2004 to 2016. New York’s defense and rushing attack have overall been within the norm of the NFL, ranking slightly above average. Most interesting is the great pass protection Manning received over his career which has generally been superb. New York finished outside the top-11 in adjusted sack rate only twice in thirteen years and Eli only faced very poor pass protection once which happened during his rookie season. Overall, the data verifies Manning was not hindered by his teammates over the course of his career and his supporting personnel likely boosted his outcomes to some extent above what would be expected if Manning played for another team.

Looking at this season, there is no doubt the offensive line struggles significantly impact Manning’s performance. Eli is under far more pressure than what he is accustomed to and the Giants’ coaching staff has not provided help for an offensive line that is clearly overmatched so far this year. Manning has not helped the situation. He looks like an immovable statue in the pocket and holds the ball far too long too often taking sacks when it is clear he should simply throw the ball away.

Conclusion

While Manning’s gross numbers and accomplishments suggest a player worth of Hall of Fame recognition, a deeper look into the statistics demonstrates a decidedly average quarterback over the course of his career. His perception as a great quarterback relies significantly on what I will call “highlight” bias coming from two Super Bowl wins and his luck on the injury axis likely contributed by a great offensive line throughout much of his career.

We really should not be surprised by Manning’s current level of play given his drop off in efficiency over recent years. Manning benefitted from stellar pass protection for most of his career. With what looks to be one of the few truly bad offensive lines in Eli’s career this season, Manning’s lack of mobility might well be on full display. Ben McAdoo and the rest of the New York coaching staff may very well adjust blocking schemes adding more blockers, or adjust offensive schemes to quicker throws. If not, Manning and the Giants offense could be looking at a very ugly season. Taking a broad view, it is doubtful Manning’s play greatly diminished this season as some suggest. It is far more likely New York’s offensive line struggles simply magnify some of Eli’s deficiencies as a player. Manning has not been a particularly good quarterback for a long time and that is unlikely to change as his career draws to an end.

Bio: Bernard Faller has degrees in engineering and economics. He currently lives in Las Vegas and enjoys athletics, poker, and fantasy football in his free time. Send your questions and comments (both good and bad) on Twitter @BernardFaller1.